Halo Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
by TimeLordSPARTAN
Summary: How would The Phantom Menace have gone if a SPARTAN were there? Features my second SPARTAN-X. (First is in The Doctor, The TARDIS and The Demon)
1. Chapter 1

**Aboard UNSC _Infinity_, after launch of failed test mission J-139.**

The armoured man stood calmly on the metal deck of the UNSC _Infinity_, watching Jane-139's egg-shaped experimental fighter enter slip-space. He didn't know it at the time, but he would never see her again. He turned to the man standing next to him.

"Do you think we'll see her again, sir?" he asked, his deep voice rumbling from behind his customised red visor. Captain Thomas Lasky sighed. Somehow, he simply _knew_ that SPARTAN Jane-139 wouldn't be coming back - a thought evidenced by the sudden call from Communications.

"Captain! I can't reach Sierra 139 on the slip-space comms!" The heavily armoured SPARTAN-X standing by the captain sighed, his shoulders slumping. Lasky patted his shoulder comfortingly before returning to the Bridge. Max-094 had work of his own to complete.

* * *

For the second time, a small, silver, egg-shaped craft with no obvious propulsion system launched from the hangar of the six-kilometre-long monstrosity that was the UNSC _Infinity_. Max-094 flew the machine like he'd been operating it all his life - the pod was the first fully working pod, and the one Jane-139 had had was still in its testing phase. Max relaxed into his seat as the neural interface link allowed for total control of the pod without his moving a muscle, let alone the two control pods housed in the side walls of the pod. His personal AI, Firestar, manifested her avatar on the dashboard in front of him. Max loved Firestar's avatar - a beautiful, long-haired woman dressed in MJOLNIR Mk XII armour from the neck down. He knew as well as Firestar did that such long hair was impractical to say the least, but since Firestar was an AI it really didn't matter - plus, Firestar could show her anger by igniting her hair, so he let her get away with it.

"You ready, Max?" Firestar asked. He nodded his reply, feeling the slip-space drive housed behind him warm up and begin to hum with power. A single thought was all it took to trigger the safety restraints - 5-point seatbelt, foot straps, hand grips, the works - and enhance the invisible shields surrounding the ship to slip-space rating. A sphere of blue energy formed around the egg-shaped craft as space-time ruptured ahead of the tiny vessel, forming the swirling white wormhole that was so familliar to spacefarers as the entrance to slip-space. Another mental command, and the craft shot toward the rupture at half the speed of light. And then it accelerated.

* * *

**Slip-space**

Max would never get used to the feeling of slip-space. Every time he passed through it, he found himself needing to find a quiet toilet somewhere to regurgitate the contents of his stomach. Firestar, on the other hand... Well, she was enjoying herself a tad too much. Every time they entered slip-space, she insisted on taking readings of the energy that made up slip-space, despite the fact that the results never varied. When he asked her why, she simply tapped the side of her nose knowingly, saying 'you'll see.'

"We're getting near to our target co-ordinates, Max," Firestar said, snapping him out of his thoughts. "We might want to-" the pod suddenly lurched, pulled toward a powerful gravitational pull.

"A black hole!" Firestar exclaimed, hurriedly switching off a few systems and rerouting them to the propulsion system. "Its gravitational field is magnified by slip-space!" Upon hearing Firestar's frantic words, he thought another trigger, and the slip-space drive selected a random exit coordinate in accordance with the Cole Protocol, dumping them out of slip-space with no clue as to their location. Max's eyes were drawn to the nearby planet, a green affair surrounded by a blockade of ships - while Firestar checked the space around them against her internal star maps.

"Nothing," she announced, "I can't find any stars on my maps that correlate to the ones around us. We're outside of known space." Max noted her obvious disappointment. Firestar felt that she had failed him. He pointed at the green planet.

"At least we know there's life here," he told her.

A large, red ship flew past them, stopping as it detected them.

"Unknown vessel, state your purpose and intent," the radio rang out. Firestar and Max shared a startled look - these life forms spoke English!

"This is UNSC Exploratory Vehicle Alpha Tango Six, commonly known as the "Egg," piloted by Sierra Max-094, shipboard AI serial number two five four seven nine one two dash sixty-three, standard designation Firestar. Our purpose is irrelevant, as our slip-space jump ran into unforseeable difficulties and our exit co-ordinates were changed. We are lost. Our intent is as it has always been, the intent that all SPARTANs share: protect humanity from any and all threats to it and to its liberty." Silence followed his words, before a door opened in the side of the ship.

"Your vessel is cleared for docking. Upon entering this ship you are to leave all guns behind for the safety of Jedi diplomats Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi." Max steered the egg into the space provided in the ship. As he landed, he pulled Firestar's AI chip from its housing in the ship and returned it to the rear of his helmet. Firestar's face immediately filled the small rectangle on his HUD, which was reserved for just that purpose. The side of the egg flowed open and Max stepped out. Immediately the five people waiting outside pointed strange, black guns at him. He slowly took his shotgun off his back and his modified magnum off his shoulder, placing the weapons in the egg. The men relaxed as Max reached up and removed his helmet with a clank and a hiss of escaping air, revealing that he was, indeed, human. Of course, the fact that he was taller than any standard human kept the men on edge.

"Your communications officer mentioned a pair of diplomats?" he asked. The men nodded, beginning to lead him to them. Max took the chip out of his helmet and inserted it into the secondary port on his forearm. As they entered the diplomats' room, Max was stunned by the luxury it contained in comparison with the rest of the ship. The man with long brown hair and beard stood up, and the other man followed suit.

"Leave us," he said to the men around Max. After they had filed out, he turned to Max.

"So you are the strange pilot of the even stranger ship which we found floating in space..." he began. "I am Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, and this is my apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi." Max snapped to attention.

"UNSC SPARTAN-X Captain designation Max-094," he replied. The two Jedi appeared to be confused.

"What is your surname, Max?" Qui-Gon asked.

"I do not have one. The SPARTAN-X program is the first since the SPARTAN-II program to be manned by SPARTANs who were kidnapped at the age of four. I never knew my parents - at least, not that I remember - and they think I am dead." Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan glanced at one another. This sounded quite similar to the Jedi recruitment method.

"Sirs, we are docking with the Trade Federation command ship." Qui-Gon turned to Obi-Wan for a moment before turning back to Max.

"Would you like to join us? With that helmet on you would resemble a droid very well, and you look like you've seen your fair share of combat in the past."

"There's going to be a fight?"

"Only if the Federation doesn't agree to our terms." Max grinned and nodded.

"Allow me to retrieve my weapons from my ship, and I'll be right behind you."

A few minutes later, two cloaked figures and one figure resembling a large droid left the Republic Cruiser and hurried out of the large hangar. A silver Protocol Droid met them at the door.

"Tee-see fourteen at your service," the droid said, leading them down the hallway to the room designated for negotiations. As Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan sat down, Max stood to attention behind them, his shotgun out and at ease.

A green finger pointed at the three en on he screen.

"Jedi!" a voice rasped.

* * *

White smoke began to seep into the room. The Jedi didn't notice until a feminine voice rang out from Max's forearm.

"Knockout gas! They don't want to negotiate, they want to capture!" Max hurriedly returned Firestar's chip to his helmet as the Jedi placed small devices in their mouths. Max took up a position near the door.

"Be ready, sirs, 'cause we're gonna blow this joint!" The Jedi responded with a pair of kshhhhh sounds, which turned out to be them unsheathing what looked like coloured, single bladed energy swords. Max grinned.

"Oh, what the hell, if you guys are going melee, I'll go melee too." He slung his shotgun onto his back and drew his twin, golden-bladed energy swords. Obi-Wan sniggered softly.

"Isn't that just slightly overkill?" he asked. Max shrugged. Qui-Gon, on the other hand, was staring at him in awe. Whatever question he had been about to ask, however, was cut short when the battle droids entered through the open doors. Max danced between the droids, slicing some in half, cutting the heads off others, even kicking one so hard it left a sizeable dent in the wall it hit. The squadron was obliterated in under a minute.

"Let's move," Max said, barely breathing any heavier than he had before. The Jedi followed him as he ran to where he knew the bridge of the ship had to be. A pair of metal balls rolled forward to obstruct their path before transforming into four-legged droids with blue force fields and twin guns. They began to fire, and Max saw weapon fire in his galaxy for the first time. The red bolts fired by the droids resembled hard light, but their effect on his personal shield was more similar to plasma - that is, they did precisely jack crap.

"Droidekas!" Qui-Gon exclaimed. "Not even a Jedi can take them down!" Max ignored the last part, charging at the droids with his energy swords sheathed. When a SPARTAN gets moving, they resemble a vehicle more than an infantry unit. Their enhanced speed gives them a velocity similar to that of a warthog LAAV, and their momentum is frightening. He hurtled toward the two unsuspecting droidekas, and everything seemed to slow down as adrenalin fuelled his system. He knew the phenomemon, even if he'd never personally experienced it. SPARTAN time, a state in which a SPARTAN saw everything and reacted faster than anyone could blink. He saw the bolts headed toward him. He knew that the next bolts after them would break his shields. He knew what he had to do. He launched himself at the droidekas, his feet leaving the ground. He collided with the bolts in mid-air before continuing on to plough his fists into the force fields, whose generators exploded under the strain of two tonnes of weight ploughing into them at seventy kilometres per hour. His fists continued into the metal bodies of the droids, ripping them apart. He rolled as he hit the ground, drawing his energy blades in case there was another threat. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan stared at him.

"What are you?" Qui-Gon asked fearfully.

"I'm a SPARTAN. Let's move." They returned to the hangar to find the cruiser destroyed. Max scanned the wreckage, seeing the egg poking out. He sprinted over to it, hauling the ten-ton ship out and setting it upright.

"C'mon! They're sending down invasion ships to the surface! If we can squeeze in we can get there first and lend a hand!"

As the Trade Federation invasion fleet neared Naboo's atmosphere, a small, silver, egg-shaped object hurtled past and into the atmosphere at a phenomenal rate.

"Firestar! All shields front!" Firestar's avatar manifested, startling Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon.

"Aye aye, Max!"

* * *

Queen Amidala watched the silver object fall from the sky, knowing it had to be a missile or bomb. She was astonished, however, to see the object slow and turn toward the palace. It stopped at her balcony, drawing alongside. The side of the egg-shaped object flowed open, revealing two men and a droid.

"Looks like you could use some help, your majesty," the man closest to her said as the Federation ships began to land.

"Never fear," the large droid spoke up, "the cavalry has arrived."


	2. Chapter 2

Max had seen bigger armies. He'd even fought some - with the help of other SPARTAN-X's of course - but no army he had faced had been this regimented.

The two Jedi and Max had shot off as soon as the queen had accepted their help, hurtling toward the large drop ships. When they neared the first landing site, Max shifted Qui-Gon to the other side of the ship, freeing his path to the door. With a shout of "land the ship nearby, Firestar!" he leaped out of the ship, still easily a kilometer or two in the air, hurtling toward the ground at an incredible rate. He mentally triggered his armor's lockup feature, curling into a ball as his shields became opaque and his armor fixed itself in place. He hit the ground with the force of a small meteor, destroying one of the transports which were slowly moving away from the drop ship. He released the lockup, drawing his shotgun.

The M-280 Close Assault Weapon System was one of the latest in hard-light weapons systems, drawing heavily on the M-90 shotgun - favored by marines for close-range combat throughout the Human-Covenant War - as well as the Z-180 Close Combat Rifle/Asymmetric Engagement Mitigator, the Forerunner's hard-light version of the conventional shotgun. The main advantage of the M-280, however, was the small nuclear generator located in the bulky stock. This generator, the core of which had a half-life of about three hundred years, allowed the operator to fire an almost infinite number of hard-light blasts without needing to reload. Of course, eventually the weapon would overheat, meaning the operator had to vent it every few shots, but it was definitely worth it.

Every droid he fired at was reduced to a hunk of melted slag as he dodged their incoming fire. SPARTAN-X's were trained to be as agile as possible, allowing them to dodge most incoming fire - this meant that their shielding system, which was essentially unchanged since the MJOLNIR Mk II's shielding system, was only marginally better than its predecessor. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan burst into the clearing, lightsabers at the ready, and were surprised to find half of the droids already destroyed. Max was currently taking cover behind the drop ship, and the Jedi hurried over to him.

The gun he was holding had panels on the sides and top which were floating a couple of centimeters away from the body of the gun. Max hurriedly fanned the smoking weapon as they pressed themselves against the wall next to him.

"What manner of weapon is that?" Qui-Gon asked curiously.

"M-280 CAWS," Max replied, "based on Forerunner hard-light technology." The panels snapped back into place, and Max pumped the floating grip beneath the barrel - for no particular reason other than the fact that it looked cool.

"Let's go melt some robot ass!"

* * *

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan stared as Max hurtled back into the fray. His weapon fired large quantities of yellow bolts, which were clearly immensely powerful - they melted the droids they hit. Eventually, Max started to fire the weapon one-handed, drawing one of his golden, twin-bladed lightsabers with the other. The Jedi roused themselves out of their stupor, and raced into the fight, cutting down a couple of droids each before Max finished them all off.

"We really can't keep this up," Max told them. "These enemies are entirely robotic, and they seem to be bare-bones designs as well. No doubt they're mass-produced, at insanely low prices, and very easily replaced. We can't fight them all off, they'll just keep coming." Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan nodded.

"The way I see it, we need to get the queen - what was her name, Amidala? - off of this planet, and to do that we'll need a ship. Three people can just squeeze into the egg, and another passenger would just make it impossible to fly. Hopefully, they'll have their _own_ ship."

* * *

"Queen Amidala!" the massive droid hurtled through the doors, ripping off its own head as it went. She was astounded to find that the droid was, in fact, a man. "We have to go! The droid army is unrelenting, and not even _I_ can destroy them all! Do you have any form of space transport?" the man asked. Queen Amidala nodded, and she and Captain Panaka led the Jedi and the armored man to the royal starship. When the man saw it, he put his helmet back on and called out:

"Firestar!"

The egg-shaped ship which had brought the Jedi and the man down to Naboo hurtled through the open hangar door, and the man jumped into it.

"Go with the queen! I'll punch a hole for you to get through the blockade!" He hurtled off, a white halo appearing behind the ship with a loud _BOOM_ as the egg broke the sound barrier. Queen Amidala simply shrugged as she hurried into the royal starship. A few moments later, they were in the air and heading for space.

* * *

Max exited the upper atmosphere, looking for a path. Unfortunately (for the enemy) there was a large, claw shaped ship directly above the palace. Max grinned. Nothing like a big ol' explosion to make yourself look epic.

He waited for the silver starship to break through the upper atmosphere before he spoke.

"Firestar, prepare to fire the SARGE weapon." The Shield Activated Repelling Gauss Engine weapon was the egg's primary weapon, which focused the ship's shields into a beam of destruction. As the weapon charged, the shields around the egg became opaque, spiraling around ever faster until a surge of white energy flowed from the back of the ship to the front, where a beam of pure, white light that rivaled the output of the nearby star connected the egg and the doomed Trade Federation _Lancrehulk_-class starship. The unfortunate ship proceeded to explode, clearing a path for the egg and the royal starship. Max opened a communication channel to the royal starship as he flew triumphantly through the debris.

"Did you see that? Tell me you just saw that," he said.

"Yes," Qui-Gon said, his voice slightly distorted by the radio, "we saw it. That was impressive. Perhaps you should land on the ship now." Max nodded, despite the fact that Qui-Gon could not actually see him, and flew the egg to the top surface of the starship. The surface of the egg flowed onto the silver hull, connecting the two ships better than any normal docking system could, and Max stepped out and onto the outer hull of the ship. His helmet supplying air, Max found his way to a hatch marked _1-A_.

"Could you open hatch 1-A, please?" he said over the intercom. He dropped down the hatch and into the ship, closing it behind him. Everyone stared at him as he entered the main part of the ship.

"What?" he asked. They shrugged, returning to what they were doing before he entered. As he sat down, the stars outside of the window elongated before disappearing from view. They were traveling faster than light.


End file.
